


i’ll only hurt you (if you let me)

by magnificentbirb



Category: X1 (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood Drinking, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, M/M, Maknae Line Added As They Show Up, Slow Burn, Vampire Violence, You Know... Vampire Stuff, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:28:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21700408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnificentbirb/pseuds/magnificentbirb
Summary: In which vampires are a bit of a poorly kept secret, and a string of murders sets a city on edge.(Or how Kim Yohan, surgical intern, ended up with four vampire roommates, and then everything kind of went to hell.)
Relationships: Kim Yohan/Lee Hangyul
Comments: 16
Kudos: 104





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i've been wanting to write a vampire au for ages and X1 hyung-line just. called to me.
> 
> title from "when the party's over" by billie eilish, which is much more dramatic than this first chapter, but that's fine.
> 
> enjoy~!

Hangyul hated being on blood bag duty.

It always meant sneaking. He was good at sneaking, all vampires were, it kind of came with the territory, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. As silent as he could be, he still got anxious every time he had to slip into a hospital or a blood bank for what basically amounted to the roommates’ bi-weekly grocery run. They usually drew straws to see who had to pick up the blood, but Hangyul swore that Wooseok cheated, because he couldn’t remember the last time anyone other than Hangyul or Seungyoun was forced to sneak into a hospital to steal some blood.

Hangyul grumbled to himself about the unfairness of it all as he snuck into the blood bank of their local hospital. It was dark in the basement hallway, which wasn’t surprising at half past two in the morning, and should have given Hangyul plenty of time to sneak in, grab the blood, and sneak out without ever being seen.

“Should have” being the key words there.

So instead of the complete silence that Hangyul had been expecting as he slung the little backpack off of his shoulders and opened the storage freezer, he heard a soft noise behind him, and Hangyul whirled to face the door, automatically defensive.

A tall young man in navy blue scrubs stood in the doorway, a clipboard in one hand, his other hand still on the door he had just pushed open. His dark hair was mussed and there were circles under his eyes, but he looked wide awake as he stared in disbelief at Hangyul.

“What are you doing in here?” the young man asked. “This room is for authorized personnel only.”

Hangyul, panicking quietly, hazarded a quick glance at the CCTV in the corner of the room to make sure it was off, but apparently that was enough of a tell for the young man to get even more suspicious. He eyed the blood bags in Hangyul’s hands with a frown.

“Hey, you can’t take those, they’re for our patients—” The young man cut himself off, his eyes going wide as he finally made the connection. “Oh god, you’re… are you a vamp—?”

Hangyul lunged forward as quietly as he could, clapping a hand over the young man’s mouth before he could finish the statement. The young man let out a muffled cry that sounded vaguely like it might have been the word “wait,” but it was too late: Hangyul met the young man’s eyes ( _long eyelashes_ , he noted, since they were so close, but he shook away the thought as soon as it came) and allowed power to suffuse his own eyes, drawing the young man into a trance.

The young man succumbed quickly, eyes going heavy-lidded and hazy, and Hangyul caught him easily as he sagged, clipboard clattering to the floor.

“Sleep,” Hangyul murmured, his voice heavy with magic. The young man’s eyes fluttered shut, and Hangyul lowered him carefully to the floor, finally removing his hand from the young man’s slack mouth. Hangyul looked at him for a moment, feeling slightly guilty about using his magic on an innocent young intern just doing his job. He patted the young man gently, briefly, on his head.

“Sorry about that,” Hangyul whispered, and then went back to the freezer to grab his blood bags. 

He loaded his little backpack with as many bags as it could fit, but just before he swung the pack over his shoulder to leave, his eyes snagged on the young man again, slumped against the wall beside the door, fast asleep. Hangyul stared at him for a moment, biting his lower lip, and then he scowled and muttered, “Goddamnit.” 

He unzipped his backpack, removed half of the bags, and returned them to the freezer.

For the patients.

Then, with a sigh and one last guilty glance at the unconscious young man on the floor, he slipped back into the dark hallway and away from the hospital, blood in tow.

*

Vampires were a bit of a poorly kept secret in their city, and in most other cities across the country. The existence of vampires had been officially revealed by the government about two decades ago, after a video surfaced of a vampire feeding on a young woman and then being staked through the heart by an angry hunter. The video was never truly debunked, and the conspiracy theories began to grow so wild that eventually the government decided to just release an official statement explaining that yes, they knew about the vampires, and yes, vampires had been around since at least the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty, mostly registered under their own ruling government that worked in decent enough tandem with the humans’, and humans were to go about their usual business and ignore them, because that one video of a vampire getting staked by a hunter was an anomaly—most vampires were registered, and all registered vampires had their own blood supply in the form of (mostly) willing human thralls, and attacking a human without their consent was strictly against both human and vampire law. 

And so humans learned about vampires, and vampires cursed the invention of video cameras, and life went on as always.

Hangyul had been a vampire for almost two hundred years. He had used thralls, he had attacked humans (not his proudest moments), he had even tried animal blood before, but he still found that the best supplement to renting thralls for an evening was blood bags, snagged from wherever they could find them. It was Seungyoun who first suggested it, both for the convenience and to save money, because thralls— _good_ thralls, _normal_ thralls, not thralls who had been brainwashed into empty-minded slavery—were expensive, and none of the roommates ever wanted to be hungry. Seungwoo had been against it, because stealing was bad and all that, but Wooseok had run the numbers and convinced him that blood bags were the way to go if they were going to keep their old house without a single steady job between the four of them, and so fifty years ago, they came up with the bi-weekly “grocery” runs to keep up their stock.

And that’s where Hangyul was again, two weeks later, sneaking into the same hospital with the same small backpack, ready to grab a few more bags.

And that’s how he stumbled across the same dark-haired young intern, again, two weeks later, this time already in the hospital’s blood bank, sitting with his back against the freezer, apparently napping.

Hangyul froze in the doorway, unwilling to wake the young man up. He really didn’t feel like hypnotizing the guy again; it took a lot of magic to do it right. He’d have to lure the young man away from the freezer, somehow, but how…?

And then Hangyul noticed the piece of paper pinned to the young man’s scrub top. Curious, Hangyul slipped silently into the room and approached the young man, eyes fixed on the paper.

 _Please don’t take the blood bags from this freezer,_ said the note. _I prepared an alternative for you in the morgue. PS: Please don’t put me to sleep again._

Hangyul blinked.

Was the young man… expecting him?

Hangyul hesitated for a moment, because usually getting humans involved in vampire business was inadvisable, but he was intrigued by this intern. He leaned down to gently shake the young man awake, making note of his name badge as he did.

“Kim Yohan,” Hangyul said quietly, jostling the young man’s shoulder, and the man—Yohan—jerked awake, blinking furiously to clear his eyes.

“I wasn’t asleep,” he slurred, clearly expecting to find a superior, but he froze as soon as he caught sight of Hangyul, eyes going wide. “You came back.”

“Looks like you were expecting me to.” Hangyul poked the note still pinned to Yohan’s shirt.

“Oh, right.” Yohan unpinned the note, smiling at it slightly, and something in Hangyul twisted slightly at the sight of that crooked, self-deprecating smile. _Oh no._ “I’m guessing you read this, then? Are you willing to hear my alternative?”

“I suppose so,” Hangyul said, straightening to his full height, which (he noted with a pang of irritation) was not as impressive as Yohan’s, who also got to his feet. “But it had better be good.”

“We have some blood that’s just past its usage date stored down in the morgue,” Yohan said. “It’s not bad, by any means, but we can’t in good conscience use it on any of our patients, so…” He trailed off, raising his eyebrows expectantly. 

“You want to give me bad blood?” Hangyul asked.

“Not _bad_ ,” Yohan said. “Just a day or two past the date. Still viable enough to drink. I checked.”

“You checked?”

Yohan waggled his eyebrows. “Google is a wonder these days.”

“Ah.” Hangyul crossed his arms, making it look like he was thinking about it. Yohan wasn’t squirming, he noted. In fact, the young intern seemed perfectly at home having a conversation with a strange vampire in the middle of the night in an empty wing of the hospital. “You’re not afraid of me?” Hangyul asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

“Not really.” Yohan shrugged. “I’ve met a couple of vampires before, and you didn’t hurt me the last time you were here, even though you could have. Actually, that was some of the best sleep I’d had in weeks, so I kind of appreciate it, in a weird way.”

“Huh.” Hangyul shook his head slightly and let out a breathy laugh. “Well. You’re welcome, I suppose. And… the old blood sounds fine. Where’s the morgue?”

And then Yohan beamed at him, his entire face lighting up, and Hangyul’s undead heart did this _thing_ in his chest, and he knew right then and there:

He was fucked.

*

Hangyul wasn’t on blood bag duty the next time they needed to restock, so instead he had to hear from Wooseok about the strange young intern who’d asked him, “Are you friends with that other vampire?” and then led him casually to the morgue without batting an eye.

“He actually asked if you were okay,” Wooseok said, voice a bit muffled due to his head being inside their refrigerator as he stowed their newly acquired blood bags. “It was weird.”

If Hangyul could have flushed, he would have.

“Huh,” he said, trying to seem casual about it. “You told him I was fine, right? That we just take turns grabbing blood?”

Wooseok straightened to fix Hangyul with a deadpan look. 

“No, I told him you’d been brutally murdered and your corpse strewn across the countryside,” he said.

Hangyul scowled at him, and Wooseok rolled his eyes.

“Of course I told him you were fine,” he said, grabbing a few more blood bags from the counter and shoving them into the fridge. “I still think it’s weird.”

“What can I say? I have a magnetic personality,” Hangyul said, and then caught the blood bag Wooseok lobbed at his head.

“Be careful there,” Wooseok said, closing the refrigerator. “Nothing good comes from getting mixed up with mortals.”

“I know,” Hangyul said, but his mind was already wandering to how he could cheat his way into drawing the short straw for blood bag retrieval in a couple of weeks.

*

“It’s you again!” Yohan said when Hangyul slipped into the morgue two weeks later. Yohan was sitting cross-legged on the floor, a sandwich in one hand, his phone in the other. He was smiling, but he looked a bit gray around the edges, like he hadn’t slept in a few days.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Hangyul said. “You okay? You look a little—”

“Exhausted?” Yohan shrugged. “Such is life. The blood is over there. I took the liberty of packing it up for you.”

A small red cooler sat neatly on a nearby metal table, with a bright orange sticky note stuck to the lid. Hangyul plucked it off and read it.

_For Wooshin, or whoever comes looking tonight. :) -Kim Yohan, not-yet-MD_

“Wooshin,” Hangyul muttered, chuckling slightly; it was Wooseok’s favorite fake name, one he was fond of giving out to people he never expected to get close to, like rented thralls, random mortals, and—sometimes, to Seungwoo’s eternal chagrin—certain nosy government agencies. 

“Yeah, sorry.” Yohan let out a little laugh. “I don’t actually know your name.”

“Hangyul.” He said it immediately, not even bothering to use a fake name of his own. He wanted Yohan to know his name, to address him correctly in any future sticky notes.

“Hangyul,” Yohan repeated, as though committing the name to memory. “Nice to officially meet you. I’m Yohan.”

 _I know_ , Hangyul wanted to say, but instead he just smiled and picked up the cooler, sliding the sticky note into his back pocket.

*

Seungyoun was the next one to meet Yohan, a few weeks later.

Hangyul casually accosted him in the kitchen as he unpacked their blood bags, watching Seungyoun carefully from his perch on the counter.

“Did he look like he’d been sleeping?” Hangyul asked, stabbing a straw perhaps a bit harder than necessary into one of the fresh blood bags he’d just snagged from Seungyoun’s cooler.

“I have no idea,” Seungyoun said. “He looked like an intern. Aren’t all interns perpetually sleep-deprived?”

“Yeah, but did he look _particularly_ tired?”

“He looked fine,” Seungyoun said. “He was quite friendly, actually. Kinda cute.”

Hangyul froze. “Cute?”

“Oh, unclench.” Seungyoun tossed a blood bag at Hangyul; it hit him in the chest with a dull _thwack_. “It’s an objective fact that your intern is cute. I’m not planning to move in on your territory.”

_Your intern._

“Why does everyone throw things at me when I’m trying to talk?” Hangyul grumbled, throwing the blood bag back.

Seungyoun caught it in one hand. “Because you say dumb things.”

“Are you also going to warn me to stay away from Yohan?” Hangyul asked.

“Nah.” Seungyoun closed the refrigerator and set the now-empty cooler aside. “You wouldn’t listen to me, anyway.”

Hangyul pouted. “I listen.”

“And besides,” Seungyoun said, ignoring Hangyul’s interjection, “between me and Wooseok and Seungwoo-hyung, we should be able to handle any nonsense you get into. Just be smart, yeah? He seems like a good kid, and we kinda like you, too. Don’t do anything stupid.”

*

And Hangyul didn’t.

… For three whole months.

*

“Did you bring me coffee?”

It wasn’t the nicest greeting Yohan had ever given Hangyul, but Hangyul found he didn’t really mind when he saw the way Yohan’s tired eyes lit up at the sight of the to-go coffee cup in Hangyul’s hand.

“You’re an angel,” Yohan gushed, taking the coffee in both hands with relish.

“I think I’m actually the opposite of an angel, but it’s a nice sentiment, so I’ll take it,” Hangyul said, already stepping over to the table where the cooler of blood bags sat, bright red and neatly packed as always. “Rough night?”

Yohan groaned through a mouthful of coffee. “God, you have no idea. We had a pretty bad car wreck in here earlier so it was all hands on deck for a few hours.”

“Everyone okay?” Hangyul eyed Yohan carefully; he knew that sometimes it was hard on him to lose a patient. About a month earlier, Yohan had been on a team trying to keep a middle-aged heart attack patient alive, and they’d lost the man a mere hour before Hangyul’s usual visit. Yohan had been a bit of a wreck that night.

“Luckily, yeah,” Yohan said. “We got everyone stabilized a little while ago. I wouldn’t be down here to greet you otherwise.” He smiled at Hangyul, and Hangyul quickly looked away, clearing his throat, oddly grateful that he had no blood in his veins to blush with.

“How’re your new med students doing?” he asked.

“They might kill me,” Yohan said. “It’s a good thing they’re cute. Eunsang successfully intubated a six year-old the other day, though—he did a really nice job, barely shook at all this time.”

“Have you had Junho try to remove an IV again yet?”

“This morning,” Yohan said; he was clutching the coffee cup to his chest with both hands, smiling fondly as he thought of his little medical student minions. It was ridiculously endearing. “He didn’t peel the bandage off slowly this time, just gave it a good rip like I told him to. I think the patient’s arm hair was grateful.” 

“I’m glad to hear they’re doing well,” Hangyul said with a smile. “How’ve you been?”

Yohan sipped his coffee, his brow darkening slightly.

“I’ve been… fine,” he said. “A bit stressed, I guess.”

“About work?”

“About my apartment, actually.” Yohan sighed, leaning against the freezer. “My roommate decided last week that he’s going to move in with his girlfriend, and our lease is almost up, so I either have to find a new roommate who can help with the rent or find a cheaper place.”

“Ah.” Hangyul picked up the cooler, gears in his mind already turning even though he knew they shouldn’t. “I’m sorry, that sucks,” he said, trying hard not think about the empty room on the second floor of their house, the room right across from his own, the room that had been empty ever since they first bought the house over a century ago.

“Yeah, well.” Yohan shrugged. “What’re you gonna do.” He took another sip of coffee, and then he fixed Hangyul with a mischievous look, eyes practically sparkling. “Do you have to leave right away, or do you have time for a game?”

Hangyul smiled and set down the cooler, taking a deck of cards—a staple of his wardrobe now, at least on blood-bag-duty nights—out of his coat pocket.

“How long is your break?” Hangyul asked.

“I have about an hour left,” Yohan said with a grin. He folded his legs underneath him, settling cross-legged on the tile floor. “Deal ‘er up.”

And then they played rummy on the floor of the morgue, with Yohan trying to defend his three game winning streak, and Hangyul definitely not thinking about the empty room in their house.

*

“You like him, though, right?” Hangyul asked Seungwoo a month later, after Seungwoo got back from the hospital, little red cooler in hand.

“He’s a sweet kid,” Seungwoo said, starting to unpack the blood bags. “That doesn’t mean that having a mortal living here would be a good idea. Even if that mortal is Kim Yohan.”

“But he needs to live _somewhere_ ,” Hangyul said. “I just feel like we could at least offer him the room. Who knows, he might say no.”

Seungwoo shot him an incredulous look.

“Okay, fine, he probably wouldn’t say no,” Hangyul admitted. “But I still think we should ask him. He hasn’t found a roommate yet, and his lease is up in less than a month, and it’s not like we do weird vampire-y shit here all the time. I trust us to control ourselves around him. Don’t you?”

Seungwoo sighed. “That’s not—”

“Please, hyung?” Hangyul clasped his hands in front of his chest. “It’d be nice to shake things up a little bit. And Seungyoun and Wooseok both said it would be fine.”

“You already asked them?” Seungwoo looked a little hurt, and Hangyul felt a brief pang of guilt; it was a bit of a low blow going around Seungwoo to get the others’ permission first, but they were much easier sells. Hangyul had caught Seungyoun texting Yohan the other day, asking him about a TV show they’d apparently chatted about during a previous blood-bag run, and Wooseok had his own card game tournament going with Yohan—they were playing poker on their nights, and every time Yohan won, he got to ask a question about vampires.

Seungwoo sighed again, but then he said, softly, “Okay. You can ask him.”

Hangyul let out a victorious yell and tackled Seungwoo into a hug.

“Thanks, hyung! I’ll ask him during his next shift.”

Seungwoo patted Hangyul’s back gently. “Just… be sure he knows what he’s getting into, okay? And we’ll still have to be careful. We haven’t lived with a mortal in… in years.” His voice wavered slightly, and Hangyul hugged him tighter; the last mortal they’d lived with—more than a century ago, at this point—had taken a bit of an emotional toll on Seungwoo. (He had been a hard mortal to let go, in the end.)

“We’ll be careful,” Hangyul said quietly. He turned his head, pressing his nose into Seungwoo’s neck. “It’ll be okay, hyung. It might even be fun.”

*

Less than a week later, Yohan met Hangyul at the door of the morgue, looking pale and upset.

“What’s wrong?” Hangyul asked, immediately concerned.

“I don’t have blood for you tonight,” Yohan said, wringing his hands. “I’m so sorry, we must not have any past its date. I can try to get some from upstairs, or you could try another hospital, but I’m not sure—”

Hangyul held up a hand, cutting off the rambling, and Yohan’s mouth snapped shut.

“Yohan,” Hangyul said. “You don’t think that those bags are our only blood supply, do you?”

Yohan blinked at him. “Are they not?”

“Oh my god, no.” Hangyul shook his head, unable to keep from smiling. “Blood bags are supplements to our larger meals. Think of them like snacks to tide us over so we don’t have to go to thrall houses too often. It’s like buying a bag of chips so you don’t get really hungry between expensive steak dinners.”

“Oh.” Yohan’s voice was small. “That… that makes sense. So you’re not going to starve in the next few weeks?”

“Probably not,” Hangyul said with a grin. 

Yohan’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Thank god. I was so worried, I was ready to call my friend at the hospital across town to see if they had any blood to spare.”

Hangyul’s belly twisted pleasantly at the idea of Yohan being concerned for them, and he decided that now was probably as good a time as any to ask the big question.

“Have you figured out your apartment situation yet?” he asked. He felt strangely nervous; he shoved his hands into his coat pockets to keep from fidgeting.

“No, not yet.” Yohan ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up at odd angles. “It’s getting down to the wire, and I still haven’t found anyone to room with. Junho won’t even give me a straight answer, the little shi—”

“Do you want to live with us?”

Yohan froze, eyes wide. “Do I—do I what?”

Hangyul cleared his throat. “We, ah. We have a spare room in our house, and we figured, you know, if you wanted to, and you didn’t have anywhere else to go, you could maybe live there for a bit. If you want.” _Smooth._

“Is that… is that okay?” Yohan asked. “I mean, you’re all… you know. Vampires. And I’m… not.”

“Yeah, we got that,” Hangyul said with a crooked grin, which only got wider when Yohan flushed.

“I mean, if you’re all fine with it, and I wouldn’t be imposing, and it’d be safe…” Yohan trailed off, looking a bit guilty for even suggesting that he was concerned about his own safety (re: living with four rather old and powerful vampires), and Hangyul’s grin eased into a comforting smile.

“Honestly, you’d probably be safer with us than you would be with a random human roommate,” Hangyul said. “We’ve lived with mortals before and it was fine. We’ll never let you come to harm, okay? I promise.” Hangyul stuck out his right hand, pinky extended.

Yohan glanced at his hand, looking a bit lost and a bit young, but then he smiled and linked his pinky with Hangyul’s, and pressed their thumbs together.

“Okay,” he said, his voice soft.

*


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to the plot~

The house was much larger than Yohan expected.

He moved in on a rainy Saturday afternoon, and was pleasantly surprised when all four vampires offered their (rather sleepy) help getting his things into his room on the second floor. Bed frames and dressers were much easier to handle with supernatural strength.

Hangyul gave him a quick tour of the big old house afterwards, bleary-eyed and bundled in an overlarge sweatshirt but still somehow just as enthusiastic as he usually was in the middle of the night, gently dragging Yohan through the halls by a wrist. Seungyoun ruffled Yohan’s hair after he and Seungwoo finished hauling Yohan’s bed upstairs, and then those two retreated into their rooms, eager to get back to their daily sleep. Wooseok mumbled something about there being “human food” in the fridge before flopping ungracefully onto the couch, and after Hangyul eventually wore himself out and headed to bed, too, Yohan found himself alone in the big house.

It could have felt lonely, with his new nocturnal roommates fast asleep and so many quiet, empty rooms to explore, but instead, Yohan felt comfortable. Someone ( _Yohan suspected Seungwoo, but honestly, it could have been any of them_ ) had left colorful sticky notes around the house, full of helpful info like the wifi password and how to work the TV, which had at least four remote controls that all did slightly different things. The house was well heated, and neatly furnished, and smelled clean and somehow cozy.

It felt like a home.

*

“You moved in with vampires?” The question was half-hissed, in deference to the patient lying between them, but Junho was staring at Yohan in horror, one hand frozen poised on the plunger of antibiotics he was supposed to be injecting into the patient’s IV.

Yohan gave the patient (awake, but still a bit groggy post-anesthesia) a reassuring smile, and said quietly to Junho, “Yeah, I did. Can we talk about it later?”

“That’s not fair,” Junho said. “This is a huge revelation, you can’t just drop that on me and then table it immediately.”

“You’re the one who asked where I was living now,” Yohan said. “And I wasn’t exactly going to lie.” He nodded at the syringe in Junho’s hand. “Now are you going to give that any time soon, or shall I?”

Junho scowled at him, double-checked the dosage of the antibiotics, and injected it smoothly into the IV. Yohan, as irritated as he was with his med student minion, found himself a bit proud. 

“So spill,” Junho whispered as they left the patient’s room. “How the hell do you know _vampires_?”

“Mutual acquaintance,” Yohan said, hoping that he didn’t flush too badly at the lie. He’d decided a while ago not to tell anyone the real reason he knew vampires ( _stealing old blood from the morgue was probably against some hospital policy or other_ ), and he figured that claiming they had a “mutual acquaintance” was at least true for the three roommates who weren’t Hangyul; he did meet the three of them _through_ Hangyul, after all.

Junho shook his head. “This is insane. You’re insane. You don’t _live_ with vampires, they eat us!”

“They don’t eat us, they just partake in our blood sometimes in order to survive,” Yohan said. “It’s really not that big of a deal.”

“You’re serious.” Junho came to a halt, staring at Yohan like he’d just sprouted a third arm. “Not a big _deal_? Yohan, they could _kill_ you.”

“They won’t hurt me,” Yohan said automatically, and he was a bit surprised to realize that he believed it. Apart from that first brief encounter with Hangyul ( _or, honestly, maybe even during it_ ), Yohan had never felt endangered by any of the vampires he’d come to know. Hangyul was too friendly to hurt any human, let alone Yohan; Seungwoo was a giant marshmallow; Seungyoun smiled too brightly to ever seem scary; and Wooseok, well… Wooseok never seemed willing to put in the effort to hurt Yohan, even during his worst games of poker.

“Honestly, it’s fine,” Yohan said. “It’s a nice house, the rent is reasonable, and it’s close to work. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“I don’t like it,” Junho said, finally falling into step with Yohan again. “What if they go rogue?”

“They won’t go rogue,” Yohan said. 

“How do you know?”

“Because they have sustainable, affordable blood supplies,” Yohan said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. A nurse glanced at him over her shoulder, eyebrows raised, and he smiled apologetically as they walked past. “Look,” he continued in a much quieter voice, “I’ve learned a lot about how vampires survive nowadays, and for vampires like mine who have the means to get blood safely, without hurting any humans, it’s just not worth the risk to go rogue. Their government would hunt them down, _our_ government would hunt them down, _hunters_ would hunt them down—it’s way too much trouble for very little reward.”

Junho grunted, but didn’t comment on that for a few moments, frowning down at the floor.

“‘Your vampires,’” he muttered after a bit.

“Hm?” Yohan blinked at him.

“You said they were ‘your vampires.’” Junho looked at Yohan, his eyes rather sad and very young. “You really trust them that much?”

Yohan picked at the edge of the chart he had cradled in his arms. He thought about Hangyul, his crooked smile and easy laugh and how nervous he had been when he first asked Yohan to move in. He thought about Wooseok, who kept insisting he was excited to keep the kitchen stocked with healthy human snacks. He thought about Seungwoo, who’d left a bright blue sticky note with a reminder and a happy face on the bathroom door when it was Yohan’s turn to clean. He thought about Seungyoun, who’d draped a blanket over him when he’d fallen asleep on the couch last night. 

“Yeah,” Yohan said eventually, unable to keep the smile from his face. “Yeah, I think I do.”

“Okay, then.” Junho crossed his arms over his chest, his chin jutting out stubbornly. “I want to meet them.”

Yohan stared. “You want to do what now?”

*

Yohan came home that night to find an unfamiliar, expensive car parked in front of their house. He opened the front door tentatively, unsure what to expect inside; his roommates hadn’t had any company since he’d moved in about a month ago, and he rather doubted any of them had suddenly decided to splurge on a luxury sedan of their own.

“Hey!” Hangyul met him in the hallway, wearing a soft brown sweater and a smile that made Yohan’s heart thump. “You’re back earlier than we expected. One of Seungwoo’s old friends is visiting, sorry we didn’t warn you.”

“No worries.” Yohan toed off his shoes and shuffled into the slippers he kept by the door. “I’m assuming they’re a—?” Yohan waved a vague hand at Hangyul, and Hangyul let out a chuckle.

“A vampire?” he said. “Yeah, he is. You’re our first human friend in over a century, actually. Everyone else we hang out with is like us.”

Yohan felt himself flush with pleasure at the idea that he was the roommates’ first human friend after so long. It was an odd feeling, really, to be somehow chosen by immortals. Yohan found he rather enjoyed it. 

“I’m honored,” he quipped, flashing a smile, and he was pleased to see Hangyul get a bit flustered. A year ago, Yohan hadn’t even known that vampires _could_ get flustered. He hid his smile by ducking his head, pretending to adjust his slipper.

“We’re in the kitchen,” Hangyul said quickly, turning away. “You’re welcome to come say hi, if you like. Sejun doesn’t usually bite.”

Yohan followed just behind Hangyul. He could hear the gentle susurrus of easy conversation coming from the warm glow of the kitchen, and he found Seungwoo and Seungyoun there, settled around the breakfast bar beside a beautiful stranger with white-blond hair, who froze, unnaturally still, as soon as Yohan stepped into the room.

“Yohan!” Seungwoo smiled at him, warm and easy. “Welcome home. This is my friend, Sejun. Sejun, this is our newest roommate, Yohan.”

“Your human?” The white-blond vampire—Sejun—eyed Yohan from head to toe, eyes heavy-lidded, one brow cocked. He was still holding himself very still, as though concerned that any sudden movement might scare off the human. “He’s pretty. Does he taste good?”

“He’s our roommate, hyung,” Hangyul said with a scowl, shifting slightly closer to Yohan’s side. “He’s off limits.”

Sejun hummed low in his throat, lifting a glass of viscous blood to his lips. “Seems like a waste, but to each their own.” He smiled, then, and suddenly Yohan was dazzled; Sejun had one of the brightest dimpled smiles he’d ever seen. “Nice to meet you, pet.”

“L-Likewise,” Yohan stammered. Why were his knees suddenly weak…?

“Stop that.” Seungwoo gently smacked Sejun’s arm, making the other vampire pout and finally look away from Yohan, and Yohan let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “You don’t have to use your charm on him, he’s not prey.”

“Yeah, he’s rent money!” Seungyoun chirped. Yohan—freed now from the full force of Sejun’s pretty smile, but still a bit dazed—made a face at him, which Seungyoun returned with a grin.

“Well, Rent Money, don’t worry,” Sejun said, and he looked a bit more relaxed now, a bit less inhuman. “I won’t hurt you.” His gaze shifted briefly to Hangyul, a smirk playing on his lips. “Especially since I think I’d get my throat ripped out if I tried.”

“ _Anyway_ ,” Seungyoun drawled, as Yohan blinked in surprise at Hangyul, who looked grumpy, “you were saying about Hanse’s thrall house?”

Sejun’s gaze shifted to Yohan, light brows furrowing.

“He’s fine,” Seungwoo said smoothly. “You can trust him. The thralls?”

Sejun let out a small sigh, setting down his glass of blood. “A few of Hanse’s older thralls have gone missing over the past few days,” he said, and the easy glow of the kitchen instantly turned cold. “They weren’t runaway risks. You know that Hanse’s thrall house is one of the best in the country. Humans _fight_ to get a room there.”

“Did he report the disappearances?” Seungyoun asked, looking more serious than Yohan had ever seen him.

“Of course,” Sejun said, “but their families already had. The human authorities are on it, and they’re naturally already suspecting Hanse’s clientele, which is leading to some… issues.”

“He’s losing clients.” Seungwoo looked grim.

Sejun nodded. “By droves. No one wants to be seen going to a thrall house where thralls are disappearing.”

“Shit,” said Hangyul, his first quiet comment since he’d grumbled at Sejun. “Does he have any idea what happened to the thralls?”

“None. They just vanished. Their friends don’t know, their families are baffled, and the clients—” Sejun shook his head. “Nothing.”

“How’s Hanse?” Seungwoo asked quietly.

“Wrecked.” Sejun traced delicate fingers over the rim of his glass. “It’s a small house, you know, and he picks each thrall personally. They’re like family to him. Like a part of his own coven. He’s a mess.”

“Is there any way we can help?” Yohan didn’t even realize he’d spoken until every vampire in the room looked to him. His cheeks warmed. “I mean, I just… it’s awful. If there’s anything I could do to help, I’d… like to.”

Sejun smiled at him, looking sad and much older than he appeared. “I think I get why they like you, pet. But no, I don’t believe there’s anything you can do to help. At least not right now.” 

“The missing thralls… they’re only from the house itself?” Seungyoun asked, eyes narrowed in thought. “They’re not your coven’s thralls?”

“Not yet, at least,” Sejun said with a slight grimace. “But Seungsik is already planning to up our own security, and we’re passing the word along to other covens in the city. If thralls are disappearing from registered houses, then they could disappear from private covens, as well. That’s actually one of the reasons I’m here. Seungsik wanted me to tell you to keep a close eye on your own thralls, but it looks like that’s not necessary, is it?” His eyes drifted to Yohan as he spoke, gaze calculating. 

“He’s not a thrall, Sejun,” Seungyoun said. “He’s just our roommate.”

“We haven’t had our own thralls in years,” Seungwoo said, his voice soft and a bit pained; Yohan suspected there was a story there, and he made a mental note to himself to ask Hangyul later. “You know that.”

“I know, I know.” Sejun sounded sympathetic. “We just heard you had a new human in your coven, and Seungsik figured it was better to be safe than sorry.”

Yohan blinked, his heart skipping a bit. Was he considered a part of their coven now…?

“We appreciate it, hyung,” Hangyul said. He hovered just behind Yohan’s shoulder, not touching but still close enough to feel protective, and the back of Yohan’s neck tingled pleasantly. “We’ll keep an eye out for any trouble.”

“I think that’s all we can do for now.” Sejun drained his glass and got to his feet, swiping the blood from his lips with a delicate pink tongue. “I should probably head back. Seungsik’s protectiveness extends to more than just our thralls, nowadays. He’ll start calling me soon.”

“I’ll walk you out.” Seungwoo stood with a smile, and the two of them headed out of the room, Sejun linking his arm with Seungwoo’s and leaning close.

The kitchen was quiet after they left, Seungyoun frowning thoughtfully at the countertop, Hangyul with his arms crossed over his chest. Yohan felt out of place for the first time since he’d moved in; his roommates were clearly concerned about the disappearances (as they should be, based on Sejun’s description), but it felt like a distinctly vampire problem at the moment, not something that they would need his silly mortal opinion on. 

It made Yohan feel a bit lonely.

Yohan cleared his throat nervously.

“Well, I’m gonna go, uh. Take a shower?” he said, hooking a thumb towards the staircase behind him. “And then probably head to bed.”

Hangyul looked up. “Already? You just got home.”

“Yeah, sorry, I’m just… a bit tired,” Yohan said. It was only a half-lie; he’d had a long shift, so he was rather beat, but he mostly wanted to shake off the feeling that he was interloping on his roommates’ worries. It was the first time he felt out of place in the house, and he found he didn’t much enjoy it, but at the same time he couldn’t really blame them; he figured the best solution was probably just sleep.

“Oh.” Hangyul looked a bit dejected, and Yohan realized it had been a few nights since they’d really hung out. Yohan’s shifts kept running late, and Hangyul had been out on errands, and they’d never really managed to catch each other. It made him feel a bit hollow. “Okay. Sleep well, then. Sorry about all this.”

“It’s fine,” Yohan said, and then, wincing slightly, added, “Well, I mean. It’s not fine, because people are missing, but… ugh, you know what I mean.”

“Go to bed, Yohan,” Seungyoun said with a gentle smile. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

Yohan’s steps were heavy as he headed upstairs to the bathroom. He let out a deep breath as soon as he closed the door behind himself, and he sagged against the wood, closing his eyes.

He’d been a bit too overwhelmed by Sejun’s presence ( _honestly, how could one vampire be so stupidly pretty?_ ) to really understand what he was saying, but now as he thought about it, he felt chills run down his spine. 

Thralls were disappearing. Thralls were, in general, well protected both by vampire authorities _and_ human authorities. They were a necessary part of society; they allowed the legal survival of registered vampires, who could either have their own private thralls within their coven, or rent thralls from registered thrall houses. The existence of thralls kept vampires from going rogue, and kept humans from constantly fearing for their lives. Thralls were _integral_ to maintaining any semblance of harmony between vampires and humans.

If they were disappearing, then that meant that some form of protection was failing, which would endanger both vampires and, eventually, humans alike. If thralls felt endangered, then humans were less likely to become thralls, and vampires would have fewer legal means of sustenance, which would lead to more rogue vampires and more human deaths.

Yohan rubbed a hand over his face, his shoulders feeling suddenly heavy.

“Nothing to do about it tonight,” he muttered. 

He showered quickly, which helped a bit with his jangling nerves, and then slipped into his room to change into a sleep shirt and soft pajama pants. He was just about to flop into bed when a soft knock sounded at his door.

He cracked open the door to find Hangyul standing outside it, holding a glass of water.

“Hey,” Hangyul said quietly, his fingers tapping nervously against the glass. “I don’t want to keep you up too long, but… I figured you might need something to drink before you go to bed?” He held out the glass, looking strangely shy.

Yohan smiled and took the glass. “Thanks. Probably a good idea.”

Hangyul shoved his hands into his back pockets and glanced down the hall, his eyes flashing slightly in the gloom. It was weird, Yohan thought as he took a sip of water, how easy it was for him to forget that Hangyul wasn’t human until he did something like that. 

“So about what Sejun said,” Hangyul said. “I don’t want you to be worried about it, okay? It’s just a few thralls at this point, and as terrible as that is, it’s probably not a reason to panic just yet.” Ha paused, biting his lip; Yohan caught the subtle glint of a fang. “Even so, can you… can you please be extra careful, when you’re going to and from work? Not that I think you’re not careful now, but we don’t know who they’ll be targeting, and—”

“I’ll be careful,” Yohan said quickly. “It never hurts to be vigilant, right?”

Hangyul’s shoulders relaxed. “Right. Okay, thanks. And if you ever want to be extra careful and want one of us to, like, walk with you to the bus stop or something, all you have to do is ask. Okay?”

“Sure,” Yohan said with a little laugh, but he could tell that Hangyul was sincere; if Yohan asked Hangyul right then to escort him to and from work every day, Yohan had no doubt that Hangyul would comply. “Thanks, Hangyul.”

“Get some sleep,” Hangyul said with a small, crooked smile that definitely didn’t make Yohan’s heart stutter, and then he was gone, slipping silently back downstairs.

Yohan drained the water glass and settled into bed, closing his eyes against the darkness in his room. 

_Can you please be extra careful?_

Yohan curled onto his side, trying not to dwell on how pleased he felt about Hangyul’s clear concern for his safety. 

People were missing. Vampires were worried. The city would be terrified. 

And yet Yohan felt somehow safer than he had in a long time, as he listened to the quiet conversation of his immortal roommates downstairs.

_It’ll be fine_ , he thought, as he drifted into sleep. _I’ll be fine._

*

“I’m fine,” insisted the young woman sitting in Yohan’s exam room, despite her pallid complexion and the angry, bruised angle of her right wrist. 

“Even so,” Yohan said, “I’d like to take a look at that wrist, please.”

The woman clutched her wrist briefly closer to her chest, teeth gritted, and then she slowly extended her arm so that Yohan could take it in gentle hands, making sure not to jostle it too badly.

“Thank you,” he said. “How did this happen?”

“I fell.” The woman tucked her dark hair behind her ear with her uninjured hand. She was trembling. “I know that sounds like a lie, but it’s true. You can ask my friend in the waiting room, she saw—”

“It’s all right, Miss Seo. I believe you.”

“Soojin,” the young woman said. 

“Soojin,” Yohan said, smiling. “I’m Yohan. Can you make a fist for me, please?”

She tried, wincing, but her fingers barely curled in.

“That’s fine, thank you,” Yohan said, releasing her arm. “I’m going to order you an x-ray. I think you broke something in there, but the fact that you can still move your hand is encouraging.” He hesitated, glancing one more time at her arm. Her sleeve was tugged up, enough to bare the soft white skin of her forearm, and there were small scars there, puncture wounds, neat and orderly, both new and old.

She was a thrall.

“May I… can I ask you something personal?” Yohan asked, keeping his eyes on the computer screen as he typed in an order for the x-ray. 

“It’s about the scars, isn’t it?”

Yohan glanced at her; Soojin’s jaw was set, her eyes steely.

“Not exactly,” Yohan said, turning his gaze back to the computer screen. “I know how you got them, and you’ll find no judgment from me. I just wanted to…” He hesitated, unsure whether he really wanted to start this, but his curiosity and concern got the better of him. “I wanted to ask whether you’ve heard about the missing thralls.”

Soojin went silent. Yohan finished placing the order, and then turned back to find her looking even paler than before, watching him with eyes wide and shining.

“How do you know about that?” she asked quietly.

“I’m friends with some vampires who know the owner of the thrall house.” Yohan leaned forward slightly, keeping his voice low. “They’re really worried about it, you know. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to help, but if you know of anything…”

“One of my friends went missing.” Soojin pressed her injured wrist tightly against her chest, dropping her gaze to her knees. “She loved it there. She’d never run, and Hanse has always been wonderful, he’d never…” She broke off, shaking her head. “That house is _safe_. It wasn’t any of the clients who did it, I know it wasn’t. But the police won’t listen, they’re already investigating every vampire who’s ever stepped foot in that house, and it’s just… it’s not fair.”

Yohan let out a slow breath, clasping his hands on the desk. “I’m so sorry, Soojin.”

Soojin nodded weakly.

“If I may…” Yohan hesitated again, but Soojin’s gaze was still open and sad, and Yohan couldn’t batter down his curiosity anymore. “Why did you decide to become a thrall?”

Soojin looked away, running light fingers over the fading scars on her injured arm. 

“Honestly? Because it was easy,” she whispered. “And… because it was safe.” She glanced up at Yohan. “I don’t know what I’ll do if it’s no longer safe.”

*

Yohan woke to a quiet house. A glance at his phone revealed that it was still early morning, and there was no sunlight filtering into his room just yet. He rolled onto his stomach, burying his face in his pillow. He had a rare day off today, and he hadn’t yet decided how to spend it, but he’d been hoping for more than a few hours of sleep, at least.

Something thumped downstairs, muted enough that it didn’t startle Yohan too badly, but it was enough for him to know that at least one of his roommates was home and awake.

Yohan hadn’t spoken to them about Soojin yet, and he hadn’t heard them discuss the disappearances since the night of Sejun’s visit. He wasn’t sure whether the disappearances had stopped, whether they’d continued, whether the missing thralls had been found… 

Yohan sighed and opened his eyes to darkness.

He didn’t think he’d be falling asleep again any time soon.

Yohan slid out of bed and shrugged into a large, cozy sweatshirt, then headed downstairs, following the warm glow of lamplight into the quiet living room.

He paused at the threshold, hearing an unfamiliar voice from within. A woman’s voice, murmuring softly, threaded through with a familiar, deeper voice that made Yohan’s stomach dip.

_Hangyul…_

Slowly, hesitantly, Yohan stepped forward to peer into the dimly lit room, and then he froze.

Hangyul was on the couch, and there was a pretty young woman straddling his lap, her head thrown back, her lips parted in a rapturous smile. Hangyul had one hand on her waist, fingers digging deep, and with the other he held her wrist as he bent over her forearm, his lips pressed to her skin, drinking deeply. His cheeks were flushed, rose against gold, and his eyes were closed, and Yohan didn’t think he’d ever looked so beautiful.

Heart racing, Yohan stepped back into the darkness of the hallway, his back pressed to the wall, breath coming in shallow gasps. A strange emotion twisted in his stomach; it was dark, hot, stinging like a knife in his gut, and Yohan realized with a start that it wasn’t fear he felt as he hurried silently back up the stairs to his room—it wasn’t repulsion, or horror at having witnessed Hangyul feeding, really feeding, for the first time—but something scorching, something Yohan wasn’t sure he was quite ready to face just yet.

It felt distressingly close to envy.

*


End file.
